Read the sentence below and answer the following question:

But he answered not a word; like the last column of some ruined temple, he remained standing mute and solitary in the middle of the otherwise deserted room. —Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener"

In the bolded section, how does the addition of "not a word" change the impact of this introductory clause?

A It emphasizes the lack of response: no answer was given at all.

Explanation:

In Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, the story revolves around the incompatibility of the narrator/ lawyer who hired Bartleby. But due to his 'weird' change in not heeding his boss's words, the narrator wonders why Bartleby suddenly decided to up and stop doing anything he's ordered to do.

Considering his previous work ethics and how he had diligently worked, completing all tasks assigned to him, the Lawyer was stupefied to find his requests refused. Bartleby's response of "I would prefer not to" for every request led the narrator unable to even scold him. Bartleby's calm yet firm response for all tasks and his slogan of "I would prefer not to" is the main focus of the story. And in consideration to that response, the use of the word "not a word" greatly emphasizes the lack or absolute absence of response from the expected man.

word count 168

serve the people! ,” smoothly translated by julia lovell, offers an initial sample of yan lianke’s writing to an english-speaking audience. a bluntly drawn, mildly erotic fable, it teases mao zedong by poking fun at a true believer who obeys the chairman’s precepts too literally. to a western sensibility, the broad strokes of yan lianke’s humor would seem to pose little risk of inciting rebellion, whether of the flesh or of the body politic. but then, part of the book’s attraction is that it doesn’t have a western sensibility. it lets the reader see — or rather, intuit — what jokes chinese officials don’t consider funny, and how very little it takes for a writer to be branded an incendiary in 21st-century china, more than three decades after the death of mao, a decade after the death of deng xiaoping and seven years since china entered the world trade organization, a move that would seem to signal a willingness (however wary) to mingle with the rest of the world.